I'm ALWAYS drawing, its my medication

This is me practicing on new paper. It was going to be Wonder Woman and honestly, I knew I wouldn’t finish it. But…

I still managed to piss someone off by doing it. Had a lady loudly announce that there were children in the Starbucks and that I should be ashamed.”Sure” I told her, “sorry your kids have such a loud ghetto mother with low self esteem”.

“I’m not ghetto, I’m white!” Then the pieces clicked for her and she walked away angrily. Oh well…

I think people have such a terrible response to bikini art or human body art. Full disclosure; I’m not a fan of some of it either. I just assume that it wasn’t meant for me and keep it moving.

It’s as simple as that.

The good news is I got to break in my new scales of paper in relative peace and quiet. The occasional curious person.

I had to go visit an old Girlfriend in hospice. Cancer. She’d requested to see me, so I went. We talked, a little; she told me why she left and that she liked me. Thought I was one of the nicest people she knew.

I had to be somebody’s, right?

Her mother was there and some cousins. Apparently she talked about me a lot. I answered their questions. I held her hand. We cried some.

Well, I’m back from vacation. Thanks for being patient and sorry I had to post rushed art. It’s not as much fun when you’re not intentionally doing it!

This work was almost completely different. I originally was going to draw Domino the way she appears in the comics, albino with one dark eye.

Think Spot from the Dick and Jane books.

ANYWAY, while telling an associate of mine about my grand plan, she laughed.

“You’re such a contrarian”.

I almost argued with her. Which would have proved her point.

Instead I decided to, for a change, do what was expected. It was hard, you guys!

I may have a problem. A psychological blindspot.

Aside from the original sketch, most of this was done without reference. I figured it was okay if it wasn’t quite Zazzie; after all, she’d stood us up at All Star Con. I owed her nothing, ha-ha.

Next came the color markers. I was going to do flats of colour, but forgot and started getting overly elaborate. Oops!

Next came the colored pencils. I have to admit, it’s been many months ago since I last used them I did a few blend outs to make sure that I was using the right pallet. I’m sure my instinct for it will come back eventually.

In the meantime, I had to fight an old enemy; smudging. While your strokes are fresh the oil from your hands can continue to smear them, usually leaving your image looking blurry. A piece of paper or cloth under hand fixes the issue. Also, Pro tip: learn how to shade by gradually lifting pressure on your stroke. Unless you’re using charcoal, the ability to shade without smudging is going to improve everything about your image.

Finally, I was almost done! I was going to let the lips have a more natural tone until I was asked why I left her mouth looking flat.

A lot of people remember Rutger Hauer as his seminal creation, Roy Batty. Not me. I had no interest in the saxophone tuned, smoke filled crime drama. Nope.

My first Rutger film was Blind Fury.

That movie was a weird, fun filled adventure. It made me laugh. Seeing him walking off in the end made me want to see further adventures.

Next was Split Second.

I’ll be honest; I didn’t see all of it. The Mrs and I were really busy making out (newlyweds). But I do remember believing his character was him. He was a sort of action hero, but a more emotionally honest one

I saw Hitcher while stationed overseas in Germany. It was running in a small theatre in Munchen(Munich) And me, being an idiot went in to see it.

It was in German. But I still got the point.

So finally, FINALLY I decided to give Blade Runner a try. There were a lot of versions, but Netflix only had one. I was divorced, cynical and bitter. Perfect timing, right?

I loved it. It didn’t try to explain the world we were seeing too much. I could almost grasp a lot of it. But I enjoyed two people in it the most.

Rachel. And Roy.

I’m not sure what that says about my mindset then. I guess I had lost a lot of my self identity at that point.

I wasn’t a soldier, husband or even allowed to be a dad. I was holding on to a job and had tried to take my own life. I’d been encouraged to. By my wife.

…

So the entirety of his very eloquent self eulogy deeply affected me. Here was a man who had lost everything and was about to lose the only thing he had left. And all he wanted was one more day.

So I decided to try it. Just be here one more day. That was nine years ago.

So yeah…Mr Hauer saved me while I metaphorically was dangling by the fingertips. So I drew him twice. He died in the same year Roy Batty did in the movie.